Abstract
Viruses that infect bacteria are emerging as attractive biocontrol agents and biopreservatives for foods. Since these bacteriophages kill the target pathogens by lysis and are also consumed along with food, it is essential to evaluate their collateral toxicity on the probiotic gut microbiota. In this study, we examined the acute oral toxicity of a Salmonella phage isolated from sewage in mice. Acute oral administration of the Salmonella phage for five consecutive days did not show any significant pathological changes in the vital organs like lung, kidneys, heart, liver, and intestine. In addition, growth of typical probiotic microbiota remained unaffected even after incubation up to 24 h with the Salmonella phage. The results of this study clearly showed that oral administration of the lytic Salmonella phage did not have any significant adverse effects on the animals, may not harm the probiotic gut microbiota, and are likely to be safe for use in food preservation.
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The data generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the encouragement given during study by the Director, National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Hyderabad, India, and Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, India
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Fund for this study was obtained from the National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Hyderabad, India.
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Conceptualization, investigation, and methodology: RNK; observation of histopathology slides: MVS; editing and validation: BR; project administration: PUK; writing original draft and data curation: KP; resources and supervision: HR; visualization: BB; formal analysis: HN; animal experiment: MS; preparation of histopathological slides: KS; writing, review, and editing: SG.
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The author(s) declare no competing interests.
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IAEC (Institutional Animal Ethical Committee) of NIN (National Institute of Nutrition) permission was obtained before initiating this experiment (Ref No. ICMR-NIN/IAEC/01/012/2020).
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Kumar, R.N., Surekha, M.V., Ramalingam, B. et al. Oral Toxicity Study for Salmonella Killing Lytic Bacteriophage NINP13076 in BALB/c Mice and Its Effect on Probiotic Microbiota. Curr Microbiol 79, 89 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-021-02754-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-021-02754-9